11/7/17 – Goodbye to a friend

Posted on November 7 2017by admin2

Life hits hard sometimes, and the greater the hit, the greater the perspective one is often given of life. What can seem like the end of the world at one moment can suddenly change into, “Hey, that’s not so bad,” the next moment when true tragedy strikes rearing its ugly head.

In their first season game, Gordon Hayward of the Boston Celtics was thrown an alley-oop pass from Kyrie Irving (#13 FCIR) when he landed awkwardly and his left leg bent as he collided with Lebron James (#1 FEAR), immediately collapsing to the ground in the first quarter against the Cavs. The footage is excruciating to watch, to put it mildly, and it was announced that Hayward will be out for the entire season. According to doctors, it was a clean break, so his leg is expected to heal in what could have been a career ending moment.

Indeed, it was hard for us, and fans, to watch our Boston Celtic’s lose one of their best players. Yet, on the same day, tragedy really struck closer to home.

Our longtime friend, Kyle Stevens, went missing while flying his small plane in Alaska from Russian Mission to Bethel to pick up volunteers for the Christian mission where he works. His plane was soon found about 10 miles downriver, and what at first began as a rescue mission soon turned into a recovery mission, with his body eventually being recovered.

Kyle was only 31 years of age, and leaves behind a wife and two young children. He died what he loved doing … flying, and serving people in the name of Jesus Christ. Kyle was a unique and gifted #10 BCAR, and writes his brother, Andrew, “My brother Kyle was always a big dreamer. When we were young, he spent countless hours telling me stories of us in imaginary far off places. We had a marble set with every marble individually named, and we would sit in our attic for hours while he used them as the characters in his stories.”

Life is short, and Kyle leaves us with a beautiful example of a life lived for for what truly matters.